German Post-War master Anselm Kiefer

"Aurora"

One of the world's most important living artists, and perhaps Germany's greatest post-war artist, Anselm Kiefer has used painting and sculpture to evoke landscapes that are a fusion of decay and rebirth - art that is currently featured in exhibitions in Philadelphia and New York City.

Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer was born in 1945 in Germany, in the bombed-out wreckage of World War II. But where most saw ruins, the young Kiefer saw raw material for creation.

"It was not a devastating experience; for me, it was fantastic," he told CBS News' Liz Palmer, at his studio in Paris. "I had all the bricks, all the debris. I could do what I wanted as a little boy. So, I liked it."

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From "Occupations"

Kiefer shot to fame as a subversive young art student with a photo series called "Occupations" - pictures of himself giving the Nazi salute. It was controversial, and illegal. But the point, he says, was to confront Germany's silence on its Nazi past. "We never spoke at home about that, you know?" he said. "In school, we had, I think, 10 days about the Nazis and, like, 10 days about Alexander the Great. And I felt really that there is something underneath, you know? Something heavy and horrible underneath."

Political Art

Robin Vousden, a Director of Gagosian based in London, told Liz Palmer that for years Germany wasn't ready for Kiefer, because of a reluctance to discuss the nation's history with Nazism, but that the artist's work was accepted in America and Israel.

"In the mid-'70s, the silence that said, 'Well, we won't talk about war, will we?' Well, Kiefer said, 'Yes, we will!' And both an American audience and an audience in Israel accepted and appreciated that and the courage of it and the dignity of it and the sense of moral responsibility," Vousden said.

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"The Waves of Sea and Love"

Kiefer's art has since veered away from politics. His more recent work includes giant canvases, with peeling lead - a central idea for the artist being the cycle of decay and renewal.

In the Studio

Anselm Kiefer at his home/studio in Paris, in what used to be a department store warehouse.

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In the Studio

Even after completing an oil painting, it is never really finished. As Kiefer explained, "Every day, I have to go [past my paintings] to go in my studio. And then sometimes I stay and I look; 'Let's bring it down and change it.'"

"Changing it" sometimes means pouring molten lead onto the canvas.

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In the Studio

Molten lead is applied.

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In the Studio

Kiefer may peel off fragments or layers of the lead.

Credit: CBS News

Peeled Lead

The resulting work evinces not only layers of art, but layers of history.

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Peeled Lead

A peeling Kiefer artwork.

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"Walhalla"

A view of "Walhalla," an exhibition of works by German artist Anselm Kiefer, White Cube, London, November 21, 2016.

Credit: Guy Bell/REX/Shutterstock

"Transition From Cool to Warm"

A view from the exhibition "Anselm Kiefer: Transition From Cool to Warm," May 5-July 14, 2017, at Gagosian in New York City.

"Kiefer Rodin"

Kiefer's paintings and sculptures feature in many of the finest art collections in the world. Currently, his work is part of a joint exhibition at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia with the great sculptor Auguste Rodin.

Credit: Courtesy of the Barnes Foundation

"Kiefer Rodin"

An installation view of the exhibition "Kiefer Rodin" (2017) at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.

Credit: Courtesy of the Barnes Foundation

"Kiefer Rodin"

An installation view of the exhibition "Kiefer Rodin" (2017) at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.